Cookbook: Everything you’d ever want to know about root veggies

Getting Rooted

If you’re asked to name some root vegetables and all you can come up with are carrots, potatoes and maybe parsnips or turnips, Diane Morgan’s newest cookbook, Roots, is for you.

A self-described compendium, the book reveals the vast world of veggies whose best edible parts are underground, everything from burdock root and celery root to Jerusalem artichoke and yucca. And then Morgan tells you how to cook them.

The book’s inception started at a farmers market in Portland, Ore., where Morgan lives. It was a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving and Morgan was pawing through the celery root. A woman stopped and asked her what it was and then how to cook it.

A few stalls down, a farmer was selling a root that looked, Morgan says, like a long brown stick. Turns out it was burdock root and Morgan realized she had no idea how to cook it.

“I thought, Wow, I’m a food professional and I don’t know burdock root and she doesn’t know celery root and what are all these roots? and I wanted to explore them,” she says. “That’s what led me to write the book.”

While some of the roots in the book will be unfamiliar — particularly in the Northeast — Morgan says she made sure the vegetables are readily available everywhere. Some she found in ethnic markets. Others she found online. Only one root — crosne — had to be grown specifically for her. “All of it’s available,” Morgan says. “We just don’t know what it is.”

Morgan tackles that lack of knowledge by creating a chapter for each kind of root. Each section opens with history and lore — celery root, for instance, is one of the first vegetables to appear in recorded history, and was used for cooking, medicinal purposes and funerals — followed by information about different varieties (if applicable) and nutritional content. She explains the best ways to store the particular root, as well as its general availability and how to select and prepare it. This is followed by Morgan’s mouth-watering recipes.

Morgan began her research by scouring her large cookbook collection. From there she headed online and to the library.

“What was so astounding was how many books it took for me to find all the different ways, say, rutabagas could be prepared,” she says. “I knew they could be braised for soups and stews so I thought maybe they could be braised in beer.” (The answer is yes. “This is really a great combination.”)

Another recipe took the root in a sweeter direction so she created an apple and rutabaga tart. Indeed this taking familiar roots and using them in unusual ways is one of the book’s bonuses. The parsnip layer cake, for instance, is based on Morgan’s favorite carrot cake recipe.

Learning new ideas about foods was part of the fun in creating this cookbook, Morgan says. Take turmeric. “I had seen it fresh at the natural foods store in Portland and knew Whole Foods carries it. I just wasn’t familiar with how to work with it,” she says. After pawing through southeast Asian cookbooks, she learned about its many healthy benefits, such as its use as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. “These were all new to me. It’s really exciting,” she says. “It’s incredibly interesting when you add it to soups or rice or braises. But beyond that it makes me feel good.”

Of course, many of our ancestors knew all about roots. “This is how our ancestors ate and how they managed in cold climates over the winter,” Morgan says. “They had root storage. It is this sense of going back in time and reviving many of these vegetables that we’ve sort of just shunned because they seem boring or uninteresting.”

method
To make the dressing, in a small jar with a tight lid, combine the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Cover tightly and shake vigorously to blend. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Set aside.
To make the pesto, in a food processor, combine the sorrel, garlic, Parmesan, pine nuts, lemon juice and salt and process until finely chopped. Stop the machine once or twice to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. With the machine running, pour the oil through the feed tube and process until the sauce is combined. Set aside. (The pesto can be refrigerated for up to three days. Remove from the fridge 45 minutes before serving.)
Fill a large pot 3/4 full of water. Add the garlic and salt and bring to a boil over high heat. Have ready a large bowl of ice water and a pair of tongs to remove the carrots quickly after blanching.
Using a vegetable peeler, preferably one that is sharp and serrated, firmly peel each carrot lengthwise to create long ribbons. Rotate the carrot so the ribbons are the same width. Stop peeling when you reach the core. Discard the core. Add the carrot ribbons to the boiling water and cook until crisp-tender, about 1 minute. Using the tongs, transfer the carrots to the ice water to cool, about 2 minutes. Drain thoroughly and then wrap the carrots in several thicknesses of paper towels to dry. (The carrot ribbons can be wrapped in dry paper towels, slipped into a lock-top plastic bag and refrigerated for up to 1 day before continuing.)
Place the carrot ribbons in a bowl. Give the dressing a last-minute shake, pour over the carrot ribbons and toss to coat evenly. Make a pile of carrot ribbons in the center of each salad plate. Drizzle a spoonful or two of the pesto in a circle around each plate. Divide the goat cheese into small dollops and scatter the dollops evenly over the carrot ribbons. Serve immediately.

In a 12-inch frying pan, preferably cast iron, cook the bacon over medium-high heat until crisp, about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to paper towels to drain.

Pour off all but ¼ cup of the fat from the pan. Return the pan to medium-high heat, add the rutabagas and onion, and sauté, stirring constantly for 2 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium, cover and cook, stirring once, for 7 minutes to steam the rutabagas. Uncover the pan, increase the heat to medium-high, and cook, stirring, until the vegetables are browned at the edges, about 1 minute longer.

Add the celery and both chiles, stir briefly and then cover and cook for 3 minutes longer. Uncover the pan and add the salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until the rutabagas are fork-tender and the celery is crisp but not raw tasting. Fold in the cilantro and bacon. Serve immediately, garnished with additional cilantro. Pass the hot-pepper sauce at the table.